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Do the math, get the fit / Fall Knit Along Day 1

It’s here! The fall knit along (KAL) featuring the Remy Pullover casts on… today! For this sweater, you’ll need to be able to knit in the round, purl, knit decreases, cast on and cast off. Now, you’ll notice our sweater has some cabling too. If cables give you the willies, you can simply knit stockinette stitch where the cables are.

If you’ve been out of the loop, check out this post for what’s up with the fall knit along and what supplies you’ll need.

First thing’s first! Know your size.

Grab a friend and a measuring tape, and get your measurements. Since this fall’s KAL is brought to you by Lion Brand Yarn, I’m going to go ahead and share my go-to guide for measuring yourself for a knit sweater. It’s a guest post by New Stitch a Day on Lion Brand’s website, and covers everything you need to know about measuring for a sweater. For this sweater, you’ll only need to measure your bust (for me: 40″), neck (14ish”), raglan (7″), body length (12″ from armpit to widest part of hips), natural waist (30″), hips (40″), and wrist (6″).

Yup, I’m a natural hourglass size M/L. I didn’t want to do any tailoring into my 10″ narrower waist on this pattern since that’s a pain, so the body/torso of the sweater is simply constructed as a big tube. Pullovers are supposed to be nice and chill and comfy, right? :)

It’s not everyone’s favorite thing in the world, but making a test swatch of your yarn is everso important. I knit myself a simple stockinette swatch of 28 stitches by 20 rows. For new swatchers, you’ll cast on 28 stitches and work 20 rows, alternating a row of knitting and a row of purling.

I did block my swatch of Wool Ease yarn using my usual blocking technique. I measured my gauge before and after blocking, and since Wool Ease is 80% acrylic and 20% wool, I noticed no difference in the gauge I was getting before and after blocking my swatch. In basic terms, that means this yarn don’t shrink.

We’re knitting this sweater from the bottom up, starting with the tube that forms the body (torso) of the sweater. So based on my gauge swatch and personal hip measurement, I need to multiply my 4.25 stitches per inch by 40 inches for my hips. 40 x 4.25 is 170. Since 170/2 is 85 and I wanted a number evenly divisible by 4 for this pattern, I decided to cast on 172 stitches, which divides by 4 to 43 evenly.

If you do your math and get an odd number or a number not divisible by 4, you need to decide if you want to round down or up a couple stitches. Why? Because the first several rows of the sweater are a knit 1, purl 1 rib worked in the round. When you work a rib in the round, there has to be an even number of stitches so the rib repeats perfectly in pattern around the edge. And why divisible by 4? Because I like symmetry in my patterns sometimes, that’s why! ;)

Make sense? If not, please remember to holler in the comments or the KAL Ravelry group for any clarification you need. I’m here to help.

Finally cast on already!

I recommend using the long tail tubular cast on for this sweater since it’s very stretchy and this is a bottom up sweater. Last week I made two videos sharing how to do a long tail tubular cast on left and right handed. Since the long tail tubular cast on takes two setup rows to complete, the ribbing I have on the sweater’s hem is 7 rows. If you do the long tail tubular cast on, that would be 2 rows of cast on setup rows, plus 5 rows of k1, p1.

The Remy Pullover: Knit Along Day 1 Pattern

Sizing:In the pattern, I’ve done the math for you already for standard XS-XXL sizes, but the beauty of knitting your own sweater is that you can do the math and get a custom fit. If you want help doing the math for another size, drop me a line at handsoccupied-at-gmail-dot-com or comment or join in on Ravelry.

Phew! That was a lot! Again, let me know if you need support on anything by leaving a comment or joining the Ravelry group for this KAL. If you’re on Instagram or Twitter, don’t forget to share your in-progress sweaters with the hashtag #handsoccupiedkal.

The fall knit along is brought to you by Lion Brand Yarns. Check out Lion Brand on social media: Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Pinterest. If you’re still needing to buy your yarn, you can get 20% off Wool Ease yarn from Lion Brand with the coupon code handsoccupied14 at lionbrand.com! The code’s good through October 17.

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a knitting, crochet and crafts designer. She first learned to knit at age 8 from a grandmother who saw in her a need for something to keep her busy. She's now a full time designer, video host, blogger & teacher. You can keep up with her designs and more by following handsoccupied on your favorite social network.

Just leave the body attached to the skein of yarn you’re working. You’ll use it again later. If you broke your yarn, it’s 100% ok too! You can grab another skein when we get to the point where you’ll attach your sleeves. Great question, Sarah! -Heidi

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Hi! I’m Heidi Gustad, and I’m a yarn crafts designer and blogger, partial to primary colors, vintage style and most needlecrafts. Along with two designer friends, I co-host The Very Serious Crafts Podcast. My first book is set to be released in the fall of 2020.